New-Yorker Stadt-Theater Opera: Die Huguenotten

“Mme. Pauline Lucca is at present fulfilling an engagement at the Stadt Theatre, in the Bowery, where she appears thrice a week in German opera. Last evening, she sang Valentine, in ‘The Huguenots.’ It is agreeable to have to record that the effects of the Havana climate upon the artist’s fine voice have not been lasting. Her tones, yesterday, were as rich and as powerful as ever, and their compass was as great, while her unrivalled powers as a tragedienne are clearly undiminished. The fourth act of ‘The Huguenots’—an act with which Mme. Lucca is identified in Germany, England, and America—was at least as striking an episode as of old. The same silent eloquence of face and gesture pervaded Valentine’s scene with St. Bris and the conspirators; the same terrible struggle between duty and love marked the first minutes of her interview with Raoul; and the same torrential flood of passion carried everything before it when fear for her lover’s life forced her to an avowal of her passion. Again and again was Mme. Lucca called before the curtain after Raoul’s flight; for such a performance it was indeed worth while to bear with a recital of Meyerbeer’s glorious work to which the word unsatisfactory is the mildest to be applied. The orchestra and chorus, yesterday, were pretty efficient, save in the ‘Rataplan;’ Herr Hermanns sang the duet with Mme. Lucca in the third act quite impressively, and the ensembles in the fourth went fairly, but of the tenor (Herr Pflüger) and of everybody and everything else the least said the better.”

“The second appearance of the favorite German prima donna at this theatre was in a rôle which can never fail to excite interest—that of Valentine in ‘The Huguenots.’ The house was indescribable, as we know not of any previous occasion on which so many people were congregated together in a building in New York. Before six o’clock a crowd was already assembled in front of the theatre, and by the time that the doors opened half-past six, the line extended far out in the Bowery and down towards Canal street. The exertions of a half dozen policemen were necessary to preserve anything like order. Considering that this immense theatre seats fully 3,000 people, and that another 1,000 can easily obtain standing room, the appreciation of the German public for Mme. Lucca may be easily perceived. The cast was as follows [see above]. 

The chorus and orchestra were in better condition that the habitués of the Stadt Theatre have been accustomed to, and for the first time, we believe, in the history of this old-fashioned house, these two important departments received due consideration. Of course, the principal attraction was ‘Unsere kleine Pauline.’ Her impersonation of Valentine was marked by many vocal efforts of the electric kind. Her breadth of tone and intensity of expression [sic]. In the one great scene that falls to the part of Valentine, the duet with Raoul in the fourth act, Mme. Lucca poured fourth a very avalanche of effect in her magnificent rendering of the music of the scene. She is still in full possession of the glorious voice that has brought crowned heads to her feet and has raised her long since to the position of one of the leading prima donnas of the age. Her reception last night by the German audience was one of the most enthusiastic character. A great deal of praise is due to Mlles. Lange and Heiss for their conscientious efforts in their respective rôles. Mr. Pflueger sang the music of Raoul correctly and with a degree of dramatic ability. Mr. Herrmann’s was an admirable Marcel, and recalled reminiscences of Carl Formes. Worse representatives of St. Bris and Nevers than Messrs. Weinlich and Vierling it has never before been our lot to witness or hear.”